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I had magic, was magic. That was a bit hard to comprehend.

But I could feel it even if I didn't yet quite believe it. And what I felt told me that the magic around me, the potential was slowly getting stronger.

Interesting and more than a little scary. I was getting more powerful with every passing second. But I was still nothing more than a slave. That was something I needed to end, somehow, before real magic flooded the world again.

I didn't know how to do that. Yet.

But I would figure it out.

What I did know was the ones who had done this me, awakened me, wanted a nearly mindless shell they could command and one that would comply with those commands without demure.

So I resolved to show them that when I was called, no matter how repugnant it might be.

Those bastards were not going to keep me chained.

There was nothing wrong with my brain, or mind no matter what had happened. And I had been a math and computer major...
There had to be a way to get free.

I just needed to find that loophole.

As I was thinking those things a truly odd sensation hit me. A tingly pulling like everything about me, physical or not was being prodded, then gently pulled at. Almost like a mild electric shock and a sense of moving even though I was standing still.
Then I got the feel of being in a really powerful sports car that had just been accelerated suddenly. I was pressed back a bit and then pulled forward.

To find myself in a different place.

“I trust your new accomodations are satisfactory, Samireh.” A voice I will never forget spoke once all that had finished.

It was Miri's father smirking and admiring me.

“They are adequate, Master.” I answered carefully as I bowed to him.

Ignoring me, he turned to another person in the room. “Here she is boy, give her the price she demands.”

The boy, a pimply faced teenager stared at me in mixed awe and fear for a moment, then almost hesitantly moved forward, took my hand and pressed something into it.

I knew it was a silver coin of some kind. Debased, not pure, but still, it was silver. I sent the coin to my newly acquired home, prison, and gave the kid a smile. “The price has been met. What would you have of me, Master?”

“She is yours for the night, boy.” Miri's father told him, then added. “Perhaps she can make a man of you since nothing else has worked.”

So my first was to be a youth who for some reason had not measured up to what his elders thought he should be. He was nervous, even frightened, so I gave him a reassuring smile and held out a hand. “Come Master, tonight I will show you things most mortals only dream of. I will give you a taste of heaven.”

Why did I say that, while cocking a hip and smiling again? The spell that had made — awakened me? A compulsion to act the shameless harlot? Both, neither? I didn't know just then and could do nothing to change things even if I had. “Come Master, join me and I am yours for the night.”

I was not under the illusion that starting me with this boy was a mercy. It was a test, for me, and likely for him. My 'creators' weren't yet sure of me so were cautious about making use of what I had become and sent a near child to risk any deceits I might pull. Oh there would be deceits, I was sure of it, and the first one would be tonight, but not at all what they half feared. I would not harm this boy or even try to.

No, the ones I intended to harm would not see anything other than the compliant little magical whore they had made. For this night, and a number of others, I was sure. I would give them no hint that I wasn't what they had planned for me to be until I was ready to show them.

Then, oh then, they would wish I had sent them to some mere Hell. But I had to be patient, and learn. Even though biding my time would involve things I had no wish to do.

The youth took my hand and we were back in my prison, my so opulent prison. It was clear enough then that I would be given no hint of freedom, not even when performing my — duties.

“Souri!” I called and clapped my hands. “We have a guest! Bring refreshments for him!

“Now, Master,” I whispered while leading him to a couch, “what is it you would have of me?”

He hesitated, then told me. No wonder He hesitated.

“Master, I am sorry, but that is not in my power to do.” I sadly told him, running into another limitation to how I could show myself. My first preferred men.

“But they said...”

“That I could give you your heart's desire.” I touched his lips to stop him. “That I can do if you are brave enough to take what I offer.
“What will they do to you, if you don't pass this 'test' they have given you?” I asked.

“They will make me become a woman.” He answered. “But I won't be a complete one, and they are cruel to women, especially ones like me at the best of times.”

“Ahh, and if I could help you avoid that?” I asked. “What would you say, or do to have it?”

“They are watching.” He nervously told me.

With a look to Souri I nodded and something we'd planned early on happened. Once I was sure it had worked, I smiled at him. “They will see what we wish them to see. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, back to my question, what would you give me for something like you desire without the abuse you would get for it otherwise?”

“Anything you ask.” He simply told me, then amended that. “Other than killing my father and uncles.”

“A favor would be all I ask for it.” I smiled at him marveling at his concern for men who obviously had little for him. They fully expected him to fail here.

“A favor?”

“A favor.” I nodded. “That I will call in when I need it. Nothing more.”

“How large a favor?” He looked worried, this boy was no one's fool.

“Does it matter that much?” I shrugged. “Information, answering a few questions when I ask them, nothing else. I'm not asking for your soul, child. Or for you to kill anyone for me. Oh believe me, I don't want them dead at all. Not at all.”

“But...”

“Hush.” I touched his lips with a fingertip again. “Yes or no is all I require here and the cost will not be so onerous for you, that is a promise.”

He thought about it, the alternatives, and slowly nodded. I caught images of the abuse he had already endured and was actually very impressed that he didn't want bloody revenge for some of things he'd been through. “All right. I agree.”

“Good, Naderah.” I answered, giving him a name that meant Rare, which this boy really was. “Now sleep that I may do my work.”

I touched him, felt his very being, and set it to shape its physical self to his mental and emotional one, but with a trigger to start that. I also made sure that the magic he could touch would not become inaccessable once he had transformed. One like this deservered more than that, but I couldn't give it, only make sure that when Naderah came to be she would be beautiful as her soul was.

“You will return, and they will change you, dear.” I told his sleeping form. “I am sorry for that but it must be for this to work. But the changes they make will be added to by what I do and you will emerge like a butterfly from the coccoon as what you have always wished to be. But you will have the power to make certain you are no longer abused even after the real change. Do not, I ask, misuse it.”

I really wanted to send him back smelling of sex with a woman, but that would have been painful and repugnant to him. And would have delayed the changes he truly wanted even with the culture he lived in.

“Sleep well, my little Naderah.” I touched his forehead and somehow knew I had my first daughter. “I will be watching over you, my beautiful child.”

So my first sally against those I hated was made, provided the precautions Souri and I had taken really worked. Even if not, my first daughter would walk the world within months anyway.

Because there was nothing, nothing at all, a mere mage could do to halt the birth of a Djinn.

Yes, that was a very satisfying first time for me.

“That was interesting, Mistress.” Souri told me once the boy had gone back. “But a boy as your daughter?”

“Didn't you see his soul, Souri?” I asked.

“I didn't really look, it is not my place.” She answered.

“His soul is female and in a lot of pain right now.” I told her then added. “From now on, look — really look, at the ones who come here. Your insights will be helpful on that count. Besides, did you feel the power in that awkward form, the sheer ability to manipulate magic?”

“Well, yes.” She admitted.

“My — creators, or awakeners — whichever you prefer would have stunted that, maybe even killed it. I couldn't let that happen, Souri. I just couldn't.”

“As you say, Mistress.” She lowered her head as she agreed. “It was well done on two counts. Now you have a potential ally who is free and owes you that favor, and you have a daughter.”

“That I do.” I nodded thoughtfully. “That I do.”

“Nicely done, Mistress.” She grinned.

I had to return the grin. “Now if our little trick works. If not I will have to find a way to keep Naderah from being bound.”

“Leave that to me, Mistress.” Souri answered quietly. “I am not bound to this place, only to you.”

Now that had possibilities that would need thinking about. I upgraded my chances of gaining my freedom by about twenty percent after hearing that. They were still pretty slim at the moment, but I was pretty sure other things would come along to improve the odds, too.

If only I was smart enough to not only see them, but use them.

“This is a very fine, tight net they have woven around you, Mistress.” Souri sighed as we looked at the spells that bound me to this bottle and to the will of others. “They worked for years to perfect this before using it.”

“There has to be something they've overlooked in here.” I muttered while taking in the web of magics designed to hold me and force my compliance with the wishes of those who had set them. “All we need to do is find that one little gap, one chink in this wall.”

“I fear that is far easier to say than do, Mistress.”

“The one thing I remember that is important here, from my old life — the one I remember, anyway — is that nothing is fool proof or airtight. No matter how strong some firewall or internal defenses of a system are there is always something, usually a little thing, that the makers overlooked and will allow it to be exploited. It is going to take time, but there is at least one of those in all this. There has to be.”

“Solomon left none.” She pointed out.

“These people aren't Solomon and he had a god helping him.” I answered and at least hoped I was right. “They had to have screwed up somewhere and all I have to do is find that one little weakness.”

“It is good to see,” Souri tilted her head and gave me a thoughtful look, “That the resolve, the strength that you had is still there.”

“I'll find a way.” I told her almost dreamily while examing the web that made this place my prison. “And when I do...”

“Indeed, Mistress.” Souri actually smiled for the first time in hours. “I do believe you will.”

That silver coin I had been given, niggled at me for some reason. But I couldn't find just why that was. Though in time I'd either figure it out, or start ignoring the thing.

“Mistress?” Souri questioned. “Why do you keep looking at that coin, touching it? In your position I would want nothing to do with it at all.”

“Normally, I'd chuck it far away where I couldn't see it, too.” I agreed while staring at the thing in the palm of my hand, the 'price' that was given for my sexual favors. I had a number of them already and yes, I should have hated the sight of them. “But I can't get past the idea that this is important not only because it's the price men pay to use me...”

“How could that be?” She asked.

“I don't know, Souri.” I shrugged and tossed the thing back into the small pile of others that had accumulated over the past while. “But I do intend to find out.”

My first real clue came around the twentieth time I was summoned. And no, I will NOT describe the previous times. Lets just say that most who called me would make perverts look clean and civilized.

Interestingly, all of them called on gods I had either vaguely heard of or not at all. Not one of these 'pillars' of Iran once invoked Allah.

I was pulled from my own search, and musing again to find myself in an opulent bed room with an older, but still hale man looking at me.

“What is your will, Master?” I asked softly, bowing and appearing meek and accomodating as much as I hated that.

“Why does anyone call you, whore?” He smirked. “You know what I want.”

“And you, Master, know the price for that.” I quietly answered.

“I helped make you, whore.” He still had that smirk on his face. “I have no need to pay for your services. You are my slave after all.”

No price offered, and I was still present. Now that got me thinking so I thought I'd try something on my own for a change.

Smiling seductively I lowered my lashes and watched him through them while holding out my hand. “As you wish, Master. “Come. Take what is yours.”

With a broad, self satisfied smile he reached out to take my hand.

He blinked once we had returned to my prison. Looked around as if he owned everything in it, including me and took in my face and form again. “Strip, dance for me, whore.”

The compulsion wasn't there. For the first time since this had started I wasn't made to simply acquiesce to a command.

I smiled at him and just stood there.

“You heard me, bitch!” He spat out. “Strip and dance for me.”

“Oh, I think not.” I returned his smile and shook my head. “You see, you owe me a price, even if you don't wish to pay it. Now that you are here, it is mine to collect as I see fit, I do believe.”

His eyes widened and his mouth started to form the words of a spell.

“Be quiet.” I told him and his mouth stopped making sounds. “Now stop that, too. This is my home and you have entered it without the right safeguards. I don't want you say a word until I say it is time for you to do that. Clear?”

His mouth snapped shut, and the gestures he had started making stopped. It was my turn to smirk. “Now, what to take from you for my price?
“Don't move.” I ordered him while walking forward to stroke his bearded cheek and he went still as a mouse in the presence of a hungry cat.

“That's better. In this place, if the price isn't met beforehand, it seems that I have the power. Isn't that interesting? Thank you for showing me that.”

I saw a glint of gold at his chest and pulled a medallion away from him. It burned, slightly, but I'd noted that Souri was staying well clear of the thing. A sharp tug broke the chain around his neck and I took a few moments to examine the thing before closing my hand and sending it — elsewhere. Don't ask me where that is, or the mechanics of the act, I couldn't describe either, but when I opened my hand it was gone.

“You thought that would protect you?” I watched the fear in his eyes and gave him a gentle smile. “Your kind have been dealing with creatures you thought were Djinn for so long you have no idea of what a true one is.

I waved Souri forward and without that medallion in the area she did so without hesitation, bowing to me and giving the mage a look of pure hatred.

“Souri here is of the kind you think of as Djinn.” I told him almost off handedly. “She is Efreet, however and no, it is not the same thing. The Efreet were and are servants of the Djinn. That charm would have held her away once you invoked it, but as you noticed, I'm sure, it didn't really bother me all that much.”

He was struggling to speak. I gave him a nasty grin and shook my head.

“No spells, prayers, or invocations from you.” I waved a hand in front of him. “Other than that you can speak now.”

“What are you?” He whispered.

“Djinni.” I shrugged. “But it's pretty clear you have no real idea of what that is, do you?”

Of course, I really had no idea either, but at the moment I had the upper hand and there were things I wanted from this man. Careful to make sure he had no other nasty little tricks waiting, I also admit to a bit of cruelty there in really wanting to get some of my own back on one of the men who had wrecked my life.

“But the real question here is what am I going to do with you?” I thoughtfully tapped a finger against my chin. “What payment would possibly make up for what you and your companions did to me, took from me?”

“Anything.” He answered hoarsly, already having found that nothing he did would break the binding I had placed on him. “I'll give you anything at all, just free me.”

“Anything?” I sighed and waved at our surroundings. “Can you release me from all this — luxury you've imprisoned me in? Can you give me back the life you took from me? The love I had and the child I may never see? Can you give me that?”

“Anything else.” He answered. “Not those, but anything else. Ask and it is yours.”

“Here, in this situation,” I just looked at him, “I command, not ask.”

If he could have moved to cringe, I think he would have. And yes, I am ashamed of myself over what I did with that man. But there were months — I think — of pent up rage, frustration, degradation, humiliation, that had to come out. I have no excuse for that because there isn't one. I know I was needlessly cruel and was enjoying it. But the experience did teach me a few lessons about myself that were good to know.

“So what?” I looked at him. “What should I take? Your miserable life? Maybe your soul? Possibly your very existence? What should I do, in your opinion, mage?”

He had nothing to say to that.

“I have it.” with a nod, I smiled at him. “Information. You tell me things and I promise you'll live through this.”

Souri started to say something, probably protest that offer, but I stopped her with a shake of my head then looked at the mage. “Answer my questions, tell me what I want to know, and you'll leave this place alive.”

Needless to say, after a bit of thought, he spilled his guts. What he admitted to, when questioned, and let slip at other times, almost staggered me. Not enough information to let me break free of the prison I was held in, but more pieces of a puzzle that was slowly starting to come together.

They hadn't cared about Michael or Miri. What these bastards wanted was our child.

Oh, if I had anything to say about it, or could do about it, that was NOT going to happen. What these people would do with the child of a Djinn and a magically powerful human wasn't something I even wanted to think about.

“So I gave you what you wanted.” He managed to tell me, beginning to act as if he had some control in all this. “You promised I would be free once I did that.”

“No.” I answered. “I promised you would live through all this.

But don't worry, I'll free you to live your life, just as I said I would. My kind always keep our word, mage.” I reassured him and watched the relief show in his eyes for a moment. “Oh yes, I'll set you free, and let you live.

“But I really don't think you'll enjoy that life, Fariba.” The name was a woman's and meant charming, enticing, or both. I sealed his magic potential away from any reach he might find then started the transformation.

“You are beautiful, inviting.” I told the nearly hysterical girl that resulted from what I'd done. “Your husband is a very lucky man, Fariba.”

“Nooo!!” Was all she got out that was coherent.

“Oh yes, girl.” I answered without a trace of pity for her. “You are young, beautiful, fertile. Quite a catch, actually.

“Oh, another thing.” I said as if it was an after thought. “You and your companions mouth the praises to Allah in public but believe none of it. Well, now you'll find that you are a good little muslim girl and wife, and you'll be able to tell no one who you once were or what happened to you.

“Have a good life, beautiful Fariba.” I told the shaking girl. “Give your husband many sons.”

With a wave of my hand she was gone. To the 'freedom' I hadn't quite promised. But she was still alive.

And you know what? I felt more than a little dirty after doing that.

“Souri, take my bottle back to where that one took it from, if you would.” I requested instead of commanded. “It wouldn't do to have the others discover the things we did this time around, would it?”

She blinked out then was back. “It is done, Mistress.”

“Good, thank you and please bring me some wine. I have a lot to think about right now.”

“You have no need to ask, Mistress.” Souri told me primly as she produced what I'd requested.

“Oh, I think I do, Souri.” I answered tiredly. “I really think I do, and should.”

She said nothing at all in response.

A presence came to my notice suddenly as I sipped at the wine and thought.

“Well, Princess.” A deep voice accompanied by clapping interrupted those thoughts. “It seems that after so long, and even caged, that you are still dangerous. My congratulations and salutations.”

I stood up and turned, noting that Souri was cowering behind me as I did to see a male, tall, powerfully built, and supremely confident, standing in a place no one uninvited had come to yet.

He was NOT human. Oh not even close.

“Offer me some wine, a seat,” He told me with a grin, “and I will repay you with a story.”

I'd never seen one before, except for myself.

Another Djinn, a free one, had come into my prison. And a very, very male one at that.